SACRAMENTO — Throughout much of the past decade, California’s Indian Gaming Special Distribution Fund has been a rare revenue bright spot for Riverside County.

Created by the agreements that legalized gambling on tribal lands, the fund has fostered grants to pay for police officers, medical services and other expenses to offset traffic and other consequences of having casinos nearby.

Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack (R-Palm Springs)

BY BEN GOAD AND JIM MILLER STAFF WRITERS bgoad@pe.com; jmiller@pe.com

Published: 25 October 2011 09:42 PM

Washington — The U.S. economy is losing billions of dollars annually to unregulated underground and offshore poker websites that can prey on compulsive and underage gamblers with impunity, proponents of legalized Internet gaming argued Tuesday before a House panel.

LOS ANGELES – Former Soboba Tribal Chairman Robert “Bobby” Salgado was sentenced Monday to 41 months in federal prison for accepting nearly $875,000 in kickbacks from vendors in exchange for giving them contracts on the reservation and at the Soboba Casino.

SACRAMENTO – An effort by Senate Republican Leader Bob Dutton (R-Rancho Cucamonga) to move California closer to making sure that those who receive welfare use those taxpayer funds as effectively and efficiently as possible was killed by Democrats during a hearing of the Senate Human Services Committee this week.

SACRAMENTO – California’s political ethics agency Monday approved a $60,000 fine against Inland potato producer Larry Minor, who confessed to illegally making tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of campaign contributions in the names of others.

A growing number of California Indian tribes have opened gas stations, often undercutting local competition by not charging state sales tax.

But the state Board of Equalization may put a kibosh on the practice. In a March 9 legal opinion, BOE tax counsel Carolee Johnstone said that tribes and tribal suppliers must pay most of the taxes in question—something that could quickly take away their competitive advantage.

For the first time, Indian gaming revenue showed a national decline in 2009, according to the annual Indian Gaming Industry Report by Casino City Press.

Nationwide, gaming revenue at Indian casinos declined 1 percent in 2009, and the $3.2 billion in non-gaming revenue – such as food and beverage sales, lodging and entertainment – declined 4 percent from 2008.

After years of continual expansion, Indian gaming revenues in California fell between 2008 and 2009, according to a new report.

Alan Meister, an economist with Nathan Associates Inc., was scheduled to release his annual report Thursday that looks at Indian gaming around the country. Overall, the nationwide industry mirrored that of California, with small revenue decreases the rule around the country.

SACRAMENTO – In and out of the courtroom, state tax collectors and some California tribes continue to clash over the income tax liability of tribal members.

Next month, attorneys for the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians, which operates the Spotlight 29 casino in Coachella, are scheduled to file paperwork as part of their appeal of a federal judge’s spring 2010 decision. The judge ruled that California can collect state income tax from tribal members who do not live on the reservation.

Last November, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation in Connecticut failed to make $7 million of a scheduled $21.25 million payment on a $500 million debt. The collateral on the deal was their Foxwoods Resort Casino. If they had been a normal business owner, they would have gone into a default, and creditors could have gone after the casino.

LOS ANGELES – Former Soboba Indian Tribal Chairman Robert “Bobby” Salgado admitted Tuesday that he accepted nearly $875,000 in bribes from vendors who had contracts with the tribe and its Soboba casino.

In exchange for his admission, prosecutors dismissed 34 of 36 felony counts against Salgado. The morning his trial was scheduled to begin, he pleaded guilty to the remaining two charges of bribery and filing a false tax return. He faces up to 13 years in prison, although prosecutors say they will likely seek seven to nine years.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issues an executive order requiring recipients to promise they will use cash benefits only to meet basic subsistence needs. GOP legislators call for the cash to be returned.

By Jack Dolan, Los Angeles Times

June 25, 2010

California welfare recipients using state-issued debit cards withdrew more than $1.8 million in taxpayer cash on casino floors between October 2009 and last month, state officials said Thursday.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued an executive order requiring welfare recipients to promise they will use cash benefits only to “meet the basic subsistence needs” of their families. The order also gave the state Department of Social Services seven days to produce a plan to reduce other types of “waste, fraud and abuse” in the welfare program.

Based on information contained in a story published in Thursday’s Los Angeles Times, InlandPolitics.com has verified by cross-referencing database lists from the California Department of Social Services and the California Gambling Control Commission that some local indian casinos allow welfare recipients to withdraw cash with state issued debit cards.

Casinos operated by the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians in Highland, Morongo Band of Mission Indians in Cabazon, Pala Band of Mission Indians in Pala, and the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians in Temecula, offer automated teller machines (ATM) that accept debit cards issued by the state’s welfare system.

California welfare recipients are able to use state-issued debit cards to withdraw cash on gaming floors in more than half of the casinos in the state, a Los Angeles Times review of records found.

The cards, provided by the Department of Social Services to help recipients feed and clothe their families, work in automated teller machines at 32 of 58 tribal casinos and 47 of 90 state-licensed poker rooms, the review found.